Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick - Softcover

"[Told] with eloquence and panache . . . [Frye] is enviably good at turning historical and archaeological evidence into vivid prose, and his writing is as clear as on any wall."
--Wall Street Journal

"[A] lively history."
--The New Yorker

"These are good stories and Frye tells them well...a timely and interesting book."
--Financial Times

"Insights abound in every chapter...The book is helpfully peppered with maps and a timeline for historical orientation and packs an impressive amount of scholarship and storytelling into its relatively compact perimeter. Walls could add a level of context to the current heated discussion of walls in the U.S."
--Booklist

"Readers will find Frye's rumination--on the reasons walls exist and will continue to exist, what they can and cannot do, and their contribution to the growth of civilization--informative, relevant, and thought-provoking."
--Publishers Weekly

"A sturdy historical tour of walls and their builders--and their discontents as well. Provocative, well-written, and--with walls rising everywhere on the planet--timely."
--Kirkus Reviews

"A lively popular history of an oft-overlooked element in the development of human society."
--Library Journal

"A colorful crash course in world history . . . insightful and entertaining, [Frye] offers a perspective for understanding the reemergence of these barriers today."
--Shelf Awareness

"I walked Hadrian's Wall as a teenager, ran some miles along China's Great Wall as a fit young man, stood transfixed in horrified awe beneath the Berlin Wall...I love stories of walls, and David Frye's marvelous book--timed to coincide with the building of yet another engagingly hateful structure on our southern frontier--was a perfect delight. A mur de force, indeed."
--Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, Krakatoa, and The Map That Changed the World

"David Frye's Walls turns 5,000 years of history outside in. Instead of focusing on the centers of civilizations, he illuminates the boundaries where civilizations collide. From ancient Mesopotamia through Rome to the presidency of Donald Trump, Frye brilliantly crafts a unique view of history with valuable lessons for today."
--Jack Weatherford, New York Times bestselling author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

David Frye received his PhD from Duke University and currently teaches ancient and medieval history at Eastern Connecticut State University. The author of Walls, he has participated in several international archeological digs and has contributed to Military History, MHQ, Archeological Odyssey, and McSweeney's.